Audacity - Hints and tips thread.

Feb 07, 2014

Have wanted to do this for a while, not just to put Replay through it's paces, but also because we are always recommending Audacity as a free recording tool, yet it can be a bit of an intimidating beast. I use it on a daily basis and have done for years, and STILL find it a bit intimidating, and would like to learn from others.

So.. anyone can show their Hints and Tips in here, record it in whatever format you can, but helps if they are very focused, and we can see the software being used.

I'll start off with "How to save time when moving around a sound file".

http://youtu.be/KmFQdmqcZGg

25 Replies

Cromerty York

almost 10 years ago05/05/14 at 8:04 am (UTC)

This post was removed by the author

Cromerty York

almost 10 years ago05/05/14 at 8:14 am (UTC)

This post was removed by the author

Meryem M

almost 10 years ago05/11/14 at 7:41 pm (UTC)

This thread has explanation of how to rip audio from an mp4 video to import into Audacity.

Dougal Mair said:

I also agree this would be a great feature request. My post is probably a bit late for Doug, but it may help others.

As I use Audacity for recording my narration, here is how I edit the sound (mainly normalizing and noise removal) in my screencasts:

1. Record the screencast in Replay, or in a separate Storyline project (so you don't have to publish your whole project just to get the mp4 video file), and publish it - this will give you the mp4 video file.

2. Import the audio from the mp4 file into Audacity (you need the "FFmpeg" library installed - follow the instructions provided when you click "download" in Preferences -> Libraries under Audacity's Edit menu).

3. Edit the audio in Audacity, but do not change the length of the audio track so that the audio stays in synch with you video. (Tip: you can also change the audio from stereo to mono to reduce the file size too if you like).

4a. You can then export the audio track (using Audacity's default WAV file format) and use it in your Storyline slide (synched with the video on the timeline and making sure you mute the video's sound).

4b. Or, (this is what I do) export the audio as a M4A (AAC) file (ability the FFmpeg library in Audacity also provides) and then use a MP4 Muxer/Demuxer program (I use My MP4Box Gui) to demux (split the audio and video into two files) the MP4 file (from step 1. above) and then mux (combine the demuxed video file with the new M4A audio file) the video and new audio back into a MP4 file which can be used to replace the screencast in your slide.

A bit more mucking around with doing 4b, but it ensures my audio is consistent across the whole project and it helps keep the project's file sizes down.

Hope this helps someone.